According to the players, the actions of the coach of Ulvila’s Pesä-Veikkou baseball team were distressing.
Ulvila’s Pesä-Veikko coach was suspended. Illustration image. Mika Kylmäniemi / AOP
The Sports Ethical Disciplinary Board has suspended the person who coached Ulvila’s Pesä-Veikkou baseball team for sexual harassment.
The ban is valid until 31 December 2024 and only applies to baseball.
The board says in its decision that at least four players had experienced the coach’s actions as disturbing and distressing. There are four persons involved in the disciplinary claim.
According to the decision, the coach’s actions included messages and physical touching. The coach had convulsed, touched the rear and forcibly kissed the people involved.
In addition to this, the coach had commented on the appearance and body structure of the players in an inappropriate way and had sent sexual messages to the players.
In one sexually tinged message, the coach described the player as “a sizzlingly sexy redhead”.
– Among the messages, messages about having sex must be considered particularly serious. On these grounds, the act is more reprehensible and more damaging than usual sexual harassment, the decision states.
The stakeholders found the coach’s actions disturbing and oppressive.
The board took into account, among other things, the subject’s subordinate position in relation to the perpetrator, the repetition and/or duration of the acts, the targeting of several people and their particular humiliating nature, such as happening in public or in the presence of bystanders, as factors that aggravate the punishment.
The man denied forcefully kissing and groping. He denied criticizing anyone’s appearance and stated that “the sending of messages has been mutual” and if someone had reported them as offensive, he “would have stopped sending the messages”.
The coach responded to the disciplinary request by stating that he “has neither the energy nor the interest to deal with the matter”.
The first case
The board of Ulvila Pesä-Veikot ry announced in June that the male coach of the club’s women’s team is suspected of harassment. The club suspended the coach from his activities, informed the Pesäpalloliito and Suek and made an investigation request to the police.
The violations occurred in the years 2019–2023. The disciplinary regulations regarding serious ethical violations in exercise and sports entered into force in 2022, so the disciplinary requirement only applied to activities that took place after that.
The acts investigated now took place between February 2022 and June 2023.
Suek conducted an investigation into the coach’s activities, after which the matter was taken to the Sports Ethics Disciplinary Board.
It was the first case that was taken to the centralized discipline of Sports.